USA: commisison Senate approves new START treaty with Russia

The Foreign Relations Committee U.S. Senate Thursday approved the new Treaty on Strategic Arms Reduction (START) between the U.S. and Russia, marking a victory for President Barack Obama who seeks to ratify the text cettte year.

The Committee approved the START Treaty by 14 votes against 4, paving the way for ratification by the upper house as a whole.

The chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry said that the final ratification of the Treaty will take place after the elections scheduled for mid-donor Nov. 2.

It is 67 votes to pass the new START treaty to the Senate, but Democrats still have only 59 seats and only two of the 41 Republicans senators have openly expressed their support for this treaty.

The Republican leaders have hinted that they were in no hurry to vote on the text because they beoins more time to revise the text. They require more funds to maintain stocks of nuclear weapons and modernize production complexes.

The new START treaty between the United States and Russia, signed at Prague on April 8 by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, sets out a mamixium 1. 550 deployed nuclear warheads for each country, a reduction of 30% from the level set in 2002.
Related Links